A 5 hour flight, a 2 hour line up for the car rental and a 2.5 hour drive from LAX and we're here! It was somewhat of a pain getting here but it is so beautiful I really don't care. The resort we are staying at is a dream. Unfortunately it is a bit of a drive to get to San Diego downtown but there is a lot to do in the area including touring wineries - which we hope to do plenty of.

We spent our first day checking out the vast resort and then headed out for a little shopping, which turned into 4 hours of material bliss. I found a couple of cute things (capri pants, Calvin Klein undies for a steal, and a top), but Alex pretty much blew our budget on his new toy, a digital SLR which I intend to steal borrow. What was that per person limit before you start paying duty again?I have a tradition where I buy a new perfume when I go on vacation and then wear it while I'm there as much as possible so that when I'm at home and use it again, it reminds me of that place. After spraying every possible spare patch of skin on my arms, I settled on Amor Amor by Cacharel. It's a common perfume so many of the stores were carrying it, but I just wanted the small bottle. This was a little tougher to find. In one store, everything was 100ml. I asked the sales woman if she carried a smaller bottle. She looked me over and said, "Are you Canadian?" I told her I was. She sniffed, "Yup, I thought so." No explanation, just that.

In another store, the girl at the checkout was trying to sell me a retail card for a store we don't have in Canada. I declined, saying we don't have this store in Canada. Her eyes widened. "You live in Canada?? But you have the same accent as me!" News bulletin: Americans and Canadians are pretty frickin' similar. Yes, we speak American.

We enjoyed a massive dinner at Claim Jumper. The decor was quite tacky, but the food was really decent and cheap! Four of us ate for under $65 - with wine.

Next up: Wine touring